When was shieldhall chosen over cowglen as site for new Glasgow hospital
Executive summary
The choice to locate Glasgow’s new south-side acute hospital on the Southern General/South Glasgow (Shieldhall) site — instead of the Cowglen option — was made through the Modernising Glasgow’s Acute Hospital Services process that began with a public consultation in April 2000, during which NHS planners concluded that, despite some advantages to Cowglen, the balance of considerations favored the Southern General site (Shieldhall) [1]. That preference was carried forward into the scheme that produced the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital on the former Southern General/South Glasgow site; construction began in 2011 and the hospital opened to patients in 2015 [2] [3].
1. How the options were framed during the 2000 consultation
When public consultation opened in April 2000, NHS Greater Glasgow framed the choice as between alternatives including a roughly 44.7‑acre Cowglen site in Pollok and rebuilding on or near the existing Southern General (Shieldhall) complex; official material recorded that Cowglen might be completed earlier but that “in all other areas the balance was in favour of the Southern General option,” signaling an overall preference for Shieldhall that emerged from that review and consultation process [1].
2. What “favoured” meant in practice — why Shieldhall came out ahead
The NHSGGC summary of options explicitly notes trade‑offs: Cowglen offered a large greenfield site and potentially earlier completion but carried risks — including a requirement for a fixed, large bed capacity and land‑purchase costs — whereas the Southern General option avoided some of those risks and better satisfied a range of clinical, logistical and service‑continuity considerations, leading decision‑makers to favour the Southern General/Shieldhall option during the modernisation process [1].
3. Cowglen’s historical and practical context
Cowglen had long been a hospital site — developed as a military and then regional hospital during and after World War II — and the Cowglen option in the 2000 modernisation planning incorporated existing hospital land and adjacent parcels bounded by Boydstone Road, Barrhead Road and the M77, which made it a plausible contender for a new large hospital campus [4] [1] [5]. NHSGGC’s materials acknowledge Cowglen’s potential for earlier delivery but also list significant financial and operational risks attached to that choice [1].
4. Shieldhall’s institutional advantages and its civic footprint
Shieldhall was already integral to Glasgow’s hospital geography — home to the Southern General complex and predecessor fever/combination hospitals dating back to the early 20th century — and had transport links and an existing clinical campus that supported arguments for co‑locating new services there rather than starting fresh at Cowglen [6] [7] [3]. NHS documents and subsequent construction activity treated the Southern General/Shieldhall location as the preferred delivery route for the new south‑side acute services [1] [2].
5. From preference to project: timeline to build and open
The stated preference in the 2000 modernisation consultation fed into planning and procurement choices over the next decade. The Queen Elizabeth University Hospital was built on the former Southern General site: construction began in 2011, concluded in early 2015, and the campus began receiving patients that April, with the official opening in July 2015 — a practical confirmation that the Shieldhall/Southern General option had been chosen and implemented [2].
6. Limits of the reporting and outstanding questions
Available source material documents that the balance of considerations during the April 2000 consultation favoured Southern General/Shieldhall over Cowglen and shows the later delivery of the QEUH on the Shieldhall campus, but the sources provided do not supply a single formal “decision date” or minute that records the precise day an executive board signed off to abandon Cowglen; primary decision documents or board minutes from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde would be required to name that formal approval date [1] [2]. The Hospitals Inquiry continues to examine aspects of the QEUH project and may disclose further decision‑level records [8].